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Golden Medals: Cal Men's Tennis and Men's Swimming both defeat Stanford

The Golden Bears got the better of their rival at Stanford in not one but two sports this past weekend. Both squad won down at The Farm on Saturday to make Palo Alto a Bear Territory!

By Ruey Yen
The Cal men's swimming seniors have never lost to Stanford in a dual meet.
The Cal men's swimming seniors have never lost to Stanford in a dual meet.
Cal Men's Swimming and Diving Facebook

I am going to try a slight format change in this week's Golden Medals - do a more distinct separation to highlight what is coming up versus the highlights of the past week. Please let me know in the comments, if you somehow feel strongly about this change (or have even better suggestions).

Cal Baseball will be covered in a separate post this week; thus, it is omitted from this already long post. Be on the look out for that post elsewhere on CGB today.

Coming up this weekend:

Cal Women's Swimming in Pac-12 Championships

This post will probably be our main update of the Cal Women's quest to three-peat at the Pac-12 Championships this week from Federal Way, Washington. The 6th ranked Golden Bears hope to defeat Pac-12 rivals including No.1 Stanford who defeated the Bears in the Big Meet two weeks ago.

Bears opened the meet on Wednesday with a pair of 2nd place finishes (and 3rd best time in the country) on two relays. Bears placed 2nd behind Stanford (who set an American record) in the 200 medley relay. Bears then finished 2nd behind USC in the 800 free relay.

The 200 medley relay team consists of Bootsma (Back), Garcia (Breast), Thomas (Fly), and Osman (Free).

The 800 free relay team is Acker, Baker, Pelton, and Bilquist - two seniors with two freshmen.

In the one diving event of Wednesday, the Bears did not pick up any points and found themselves further behind Stanford and USC as the result.

On Thursday, Cal picked up two conference titles and came super close on a 3rd.

Farida Osman set a Pac-12 record in winning the 50 Free with a time of 21.32.

The Bears closed the day with a win in the 200 Free relay. The quartet of junior Osman, junior Kristen Vredeveld, senior Rachel Bootsma and freshman Amy Bilquist posted the top time in the country this year of 1:26.7.

In 200 IM, freshman Kathleen Baker was just edged by Stanford's Ella Eastin. Fellow Bears Li, Naze, and Pelton finished 4th, 5th, and 6th in that event.

Freshman Amy Bilquist also made an A-Final, finishing 7th in the 50 Free with a personal best time.

Cal divers did score some points in the 3 meter diving event.

However, the Bears are significantly outscored so far by Stanford in diving (with one more diving event to go). To be fair, counting just swimming points alone, the Bears are 3rd behind USC and Stanford (although the point differences there is clearly less). A three-peat at the Pac-12 would certainly be nice, but the main goal is always the NCAA's.

One of the freshman of the Bears' top class, Katie Laughlin, is probably still out. I don't know how long she needs to wear that neck brace, or be able to train again.

Nevertheless, here are the running team totals after Day 2 (the Pac-12 Championships ends on Saturday after 4 days of competition).

1. Stanford, 557

2. USC, 512

3. California, 477.5

4. UCLA, 431

5. Arizona, 413

6. Arizona State, 212.5

7. Utah, 210

8. Washington State, 168

9. Oregon State, 155

The results from Wednesday and Thursday was shown on the Pac-12 Networks at 10 AM this morning, and likely to be repeated at other times.

Cal Women's Gymnastics hosts No.5 Utah

The Golden Bears have a big meet (no, not that Big Meet) against Pac-12 leading Utah Utes at Haas on Saturday (I believe it is a joint promotion with the women's basketball game as in one ticket, both events).

Coming off 4 consecutive weeks where the team continues to top itself, that streak came to an end at Oregon State last Saturday, where the Bears were upset by the Beavers. I expect the Bears to bounce back in a big way this weekend.

In case you miss it, Pac-12 Networks did a nice feature on Cal sophomore Toni-Ann Williams' bid to make the Olympics. She has been the best gymnast in the history of Jamaica. It's not quite the Cool Running story, but still quite neat to see how that nation is supporting Toni-Ann.

She also got to interact a little bit with Usain Bolt, of all people, on social media.

Finally, I think this means that Cal Women's Gymnastics are a pretty good lock to make it back to a NCAA Regional.

Cal Rugby hosts UCLA

The Golden Bears will host their top rival inside the PAC conference in UCLA this weekend. This match will be shown on the Pac-12 Networks.

It was very cool that 7 (of the 29) Cal championship teams had a reunion this past week at Witters. The bond within Cal Rugby Family is strong.

By the way, the Varsity Cup (Rugby 15s national championship) schedule has been released. There are no more byes for the first round. The Bears will host the Texas Longhorns on April 9th in Berkeley. Should the Bears advance, they would have to travel to either Oklahoma or Army (I would do that roadtrip).

Cal Women's Water Polo face tough test

Coming off two wins at the Davis invitational last Saturday, the 3rd ranked Golden Bears will again face the best of the best (which means potential encounter with top 2 of UCLA, USC and No.4 Stanford) at the Irvine Invitational this weekend.

Bears defeated No.12 Pacific 8-5 and then Brown 11-3 on Saturday. Junior Stephanie Mutafyan scored two goals apiece in these matches to lead the Bears.

Schedule:

Plenty of exciting potential results this weekend. Track and Field have their conference championship in Washington, just like swimming and diving (diving for both men and women are taking place this week - the men will swim for the Pac-12 title next week).

No.1 Cal Women's Tennis welcome a tough opponent in No.7 Florida (they were just ranked No.3 a week ago) today. Pac-12 Networks have got that action.

Of course, it is the weekend opener for Cal Baseball (see our other post on that). Bears host Purdue for 3 and then play Michigan on Monday. Bears hit the road again and will try to make Austin a Bear Territory again (after Cal Football and Cal Men's Tennis) next weekend.

Cal Lacrosse is on the road in the midwest this weekend. Cal Softball is down in Palm Springs.

Fri,
Feb 26
 W Swimming & Diving Pac-12 Swimming Championships Federal Way, WA All Day Pac-12 Networks (D)
Fri,
Feb 26
 Track & Field MPSF Championships Seattle, WA All Day Live Stats
Fri,
Feb 26
 M Swimming & Diving Pac-12 Diving Championships Federal Way, WA All Day Pac-12 Networks (D)
Fri,
Feb 26
 W Tennis Florida Berkeley, CA 12:00 p.m.
Pac-12 Networks
▪ Twitter
Fri,
Feb 26
 Lacrosse at Marquette Milwaukee, WI 3:00 p.m. Live Stats
Fri,
Feb 26
 Softball North Carolina State Palm Springs, CA 3:30 p.m. Live Stats
Fri,
Feb 26
 W Basketball Oregon Berkeley, CA 7:00 p.m. KALX 90.7 FM ▪ Live Stream ▪ Live Stats ▪ Promotions▪ Tickets ▪ Twitter
Fri,
Feb 26
 Baseball Purdue Berkeley, CA 7:00 p.m. Live Stats
Sat,
Feb 27
 W Water Polo Irvine Invitational Irvine, CA All Day
Sat,
Feb 27
 W Swimming & Diving Pac-12 Swimming Championships Federal Way, WA All Day Pac-12 Networks (D)
Sat,
Feb 27
 M Swimming & Diving Pac-12 Diving Championships Federal Way, WA All Day Pac-12 Networks (D)
Sat,
Feb 27
 Track & Field MPSF Championships Seattle, WA All Day Live Stats
Sat,
Feb 27
 Softball Colorado State Palm Springs, CA 12:00 p.m. Live Stats
Sat,
Feb 27
 M Tennis Pepperdine Berkeley, CA 1:00 p.m. Live Stream/Stats ▪ Twitter
Sat,
Feb 27
 W Gymnastics Utah Berkeley, CA 1:00 p.m.
Pac-12 Networks
▪ Live Stats ▪ Twitter
Sat,
Feb 27
 Softball LIU-Brooklyn Palm Springs, CA 2:30 p.m. Live Stats
Sat,
Feb 27
 Rugby vs. UCLA Berkeley, CA 3:00 p.m.
Pac-12 Networks
Sat,
Feb 27
 M Gymnastics at International Collegiate Challenge Burnham Pavilion- Stanford, CA 4:00 p.m.
Sat,
Feb 27
 Baseball Purdue Berkeley, CA 6:00 p.m. Live Stats
Sun,
Feb 28
 W Water Polo Irvine Invitational Irvine, CA All Day
Sun,
Feb 28
 M Golf Querencia Collegiate (Host: Arkansas) Querencia, Mexico All Day
Sun,
Feb 28
 Lacrosse at Notre Dame South Bend, IN 9:00 a.m. Live Video ▪ Live Stats
Sun,
Feb 28
 W Basketball Oregon State Berkeley, CA 11:00 a.m. Pac-12 Oregon ▪ KALX 90.7 FM ▪ Live Stats ▪Promotions ▪ Tickets ▪ Twitter
Sun,
Feb 28
 Baseball Purdue Berkeley, CA 12:00 p.m. Live Stats
Sun,
Feb 28
 Softball Long Beach State Palm Springs, CA 2:00 p.m. Live Stats
Sun,
Feb 28
 M Basketball USC Berkeley, CA 5:00 p.m. FOX Sports 1 ▪ KGO 810 AM ▪ Live Stats
Mon,
Feb 29
 M Golf Querencia Collegiate (Host: Arkansas) Querencia, Mexico All Day
Mon,
Feb 29
 W Golf Bruin Wave Invitational San Luis Obispo, CA All Day Live Stats
Mon,
Feb 29
 Baseball Michigan Berkeley, CA 7:00 p.m.
Tue,
Mar 1
 W Golf Bruin Wave Invitational San Luis Obispo, CA All Day Live Stats
Tue,
Mar 1
 M Golf Querencia Collegiate (Host: Arkansas) Querencia, Mexico All Day
Wed,
Mar 2
 M Swimming & Diving Pac-12 Swimming Championships Federal Way, WA All Day Pac-12 Networks (D)
Thu,
Mar 3
 M Tennis Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championships La Jolla, CA All Day
Thu,
Mar 3
 M Swimming & Diving Pac-12 Swimming Championships Federal Way, WA All Day Pac-12 Networks (D)
Thu,
Mar 3
 W Basketball 2016 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament - First Round Game 1 Seattle, WA 11:30 a.m. Pac-12 Network
Thu,
Mar 3
 M Tennis Oklahoma State La Jolla, CA 1:00 p.m.
Thu,
Mar 3
 W Basketball 2016 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament - First Round Game 2 Seattle, WA 2:00 p.m. Pac-12 Network
Thu,
Mar 3
 Baseball at Texas Austin, TX 4:00 p.m. Longhorn Network

In case you missed it:

Cal Men's Swimming won Big Meet at The Farm

For the 4th straight year, the Golden Bears have won the Big Meet. In the dual meet season finale, the Bears triumphed 130-113 over Stanford down at The Farm.

Winning 8 events out of 13 (there were two diving events), the Bears also set 3 pool records at No.10 Stanford (who has also been strong traditionally thus the pool records mean something). Senior Josh Prenot (one of my favorite current Cal Athlete due to the fact he is a physics major) set two of those records. Prenot went 1.45.38 in 200 IM and goes 1.53.75 in 200 Breast.

The other Cal wins came in 200 Medley Relay (Murphy, Hoppe, Lynch, and Messerschmidt), 1000 Free (Norman), 200 Free (Trent Williams), 100 Free (Murphy), 200 Back (Pebley), and 500 Free (Kao).

Stanford took 50 Free, 200 Fly, both diving, and the final 200 free relay when the meet has been clinched.

Cal Men's Tennis won Big Slam at The Farm

After winning the Big Meet, members of the Cal Men's Swimming went next door to support their friends on the tennis team.

Yep, last Saturday was also the Big Slam, coming from The Farm. The Bears actually jumped out to a comfortable 3-0 lead, taking the doubles point (winning No.1 and No.3 doubles) and winning quickly on courts 4 (Filip Bergevi) and 3 (Billy Griffith) in straight sets. Credit to Stanford to not quit, they won court 2 in straight set but had to come from a set down to win court 5. Court 1 also went to a deciding 3rd set which went the way of the Furdies.

It all comes down to the deciding 3rd set between Cal senior Mads Engsted and Stanford freshman Michael Genender. Genender was ranked No.119 while Engsted was not ranked. In the 4th hour of this grueling day of tennis, Engsted was able to hold off Genender, despite the later coming back from being down two breaks in the final set, to clinch the Big Slam win for the mentally tough Bears.

Here are the totals:

No. 18 Cal (5-1) defeated No. 22 Stanford (5-4) – 4-3

Feb. 20, 2016, in Stanford, Calif.

Taube Family Tennis Stadium

Doubles

1. Filip Bergevi/Florian Lakat (Cal) def. Tom Fawcett/Maciek Romanowicz (Stanford) –7-5

2. Nolan Paige/David Wilczynski (Stanford) def. Andre Goransson/Billy Griffith (Cal) – 7-5

3. Mads Engsted/J.T. Nishimura (Cal) def. Yale Goldberg/Sameer Kumar (Stanford) – 7-6(8)

Cal won the doubles point

Order of finish – 2, 1, 3*

*Clinched the doubles point

Singles

1. No. 3 Tom Fawcett (Stanford) def. No. 4 Andre Goransson (Cal) – 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-4

2. No. 90 David Wilczynski (Stanford) def. No. 36 Florian Lakat (Cal) – 6-4, 6-4

3. No. 32 Billy Griffith (Cal) def. No. 72 Nolan Paige (Stanford) – 7-5, 6-4

4. Filip Bergevi (Cal) def. No. 113 Sameer Kumar (Stanford) – 6-4, 6-2

5. No. 106 Maciek Romanowicz (Stanford) def. No. 63 Oskar Wikberg (Cal) – 4-6, 6-3, 6-1

6. Mads Engsted (Cal) def. No. 119 Michael Genender (Stanford) – 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-5

Order of Finish – 4, 3, 2, 5, 1, 6*

With this win, the Bears continue their ascend up the ranking list - that's 5 straight dual meet wins, including that big 4-3 one over then No.2 TCU.

Bears also earn more Pac-12 honors once again.

Yep, both the Cal Men and Women Tennis are rolling, let's check on how the women did this past week.

No.1 Cal Women's Tennis keep on rolling

Down in LA for a pair of non-conference matches (Bears will host the LA schools for the official Pac-12 meets next month), the top ranked Golden Bears had little issue with the also ranked LA schools.

Bears defeated No.11 USC 6-1 and followed up with a 5-2 win over No.22 UCLA.

No. 1 Cal (7-0) defeated No. 11 USC (3-3) – 6-1

Feb. 19, 2016, in Los Angeles

Marks Tennis Stadium

Doubles

1. No. 11 Giuliana Olmos/Gabby Smith (USC) def. No. 2 Maegan Manasse/Denise Starr (Cal) – 6-4

2. Klara Fabikova/Olivia Hauger (Cal) vs. Zoë Katz/Jessica Failla (USC) – 7-6(3)

3. Lynn Chi/Stephane Lin (Cal) def. Madison Westby/Rianna Valdes (USC) – 7-5

Cal won the doubles point

Order of Finish – 1, 3, 2*

*Clinched the doubles point

Singles

1. No. 38 Giuliana Olmos (USC) def. No. 13 Maegan Manasse (Cal) – 6-3, 6-3

2. No. 5 Klara Fabikova (Cal) def. No. 62 Madison Westby (USC) – 6-2, 6-2

3. Lynn Chi (Cal) def. No. 87 Gabby Smith (USC) – 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(3)

4. No. 121 Denise Starr (Cal) def. No. 95 Jessica Failla (USC) – 7-6(3), 6-4

5. No. 102 Olivia Hauger (Cal) def. No. 90 Rianna Valdes (USC) – 6-4, 6-3

6. Karla Popovic (Cal) def. Zoë Katz (USC) – 6-1, 6-3

Order of Finish – 6, 2, 1, 5*, 3, 4

*Clinched the overall match

No. 1 Cal (8-0) defeated No. 22 UCLA (5-3) – 5-2

Feb. 20, 2016, in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Tennis Center

Doubles

1. Catherine Harrison/Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) def. No. 2 Maegan Manasse/Denise Starr (Cal) – 6-3

2. Klara Fabikova/Olivia Hauger (Cal) def. Terri Fleming/Kelly Shaffer (UCLA) – 6-0

3. Alaina Miller/Kristin Wiley (UCLA) def. Lynn Chi/Stephane Lin (Cal) – 6-2

UCLA won the doubles point

Order of Finish – 2, 3, 1*

*Clinched the doubles point

Singles

1. No. 13 Maegan Manasse (Cal) def. No. 18 Catherine Harrison (UCLA) – 4-6, 6-2, 6-2

2. No. 5 Klara Fabikova (Cal) def. Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) – 3-6, 6-4, 6-2

3. Lynn Chi (Cal) def. Alaina Miller (UCLA) – 6-1, 7-5

4. No. 121 Denise Starr (Cal) def. Kristin Wiley (UCLA) – 6-1, 6-0

5. Terri Fleming (UCLA) def. No. 102 Olivia Hauger (Cal) – 6-1, 7-5

6. Karla Popovic (Cal) def. Laura Luca (UCLA) – 6-0, 6-0

Order of Finish – 6, 4, 3, 5, 2*, 1

*Clinched the overall match

With those two win, the Bears moved to 8-0 on the season. They then tied the best start in school dual meet history by rolling over San Diego State 7-0 on Wednesday.

No. 1 California (9-0) defeated San Diego State (3-7) – 7-0

Feb. 24, 2016, in Berkeley, Calif.

Hellman Tennis Complex

Doubles

1. No. 6 Maegan Manasse/Denise Starr (Cal) def. Tami Nguyen/Jana Buth (SDSU) – 6-1

2. No. 52 Klara Fabikova/Olivia Hauger (Cal) Isabelle Hoorn/Taylor Lederman (SDSU) – 6-3

3. Lynn Chi/Maria Smith (Cal) vs. Paola Diaz de Regules/Kennedy Davis – 4-4 Abandoned

Cal clinched the doubles point

Order of Finish: 1, 2*

*Clinched the doubles point

Singles
1. No. 5 Klara Fabikova (Cal) def. No. 121 Tami Nguyen (SDSU) – 6-0, 6-0

2. No. 80 Denise Starr (Cal) def. Jana Buth (SDSU) – 6-0, 6-1

3. Lynn Chi (Cal) def. Kennedy Davis (SDSU) – 6-2, 6-2

4. No. 96 Olivia Hauger (Cal) def. Paola Diaz de Regules (SDSU) – 6-1, 6-1

5. Karla Popovic (Cal) def. Taylor Lederman (SDSU) – 6-0, 6-1

6. Lyann Hoang (Cal) def. Isabelle Hoorn (SDSU) – 6-4, 6-2

Order of Finish: 1, 4, 2*, 5, 3, 6

*Clinched the overall match

Bears will look to make some history against a top 10 Florida team (currently ranked 7th after falling from the No.3 ranking the week before) today. It would surely be a difficult task, but the Cal squad has been playing with plenty of confidence after winning the ITA Indoors few weeks ago.

Dominating out of that No.2 (or No.1 when Manasse got the day off in singles) spot, Klara Fabikova once again earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honor.

Cal Lacrosse almost upset No.16 Ohio State, felling in OT

Year 2 of the Brooke Eubanks era opened with a memorable match. The Bears rallied from being behind 13-7 with just 20 minutes left in the game to force a sudden death OT. Although the Bears lost quickly (30 seconds) into the OT, the team has got to feel great about mounting the late comeback.

Chloe Landry scored 4 goals for the Bears. Cal star Bella Huther scored 5 goals. Meredith Haggerty added 3 goals.

Making her collegiate debut, goalie Jenny Wilkens made 11 saves and earned the conference newcomer of the week honor.

Congrats Jenny Wilkens on being named MPSF Rookie of the Week w/ 11 saves and 8 GB's against Ohio State

A photo posted by Cal Women's Lacrosse (@californialax) on

Bears take on Marquette this afternoon, check out the preview from the SBNation's Marquette blog, Anonymous Eagle, here. The Golden Eagles are 0-3 on the year, but lost a couple of close ones to ranked teams in Louisville and Johns Hopkins.

Bears will finish the midwest road trip at Notre Dame on Sunday. There is apparently a live video feed of that match.

Cal Softball had mixed result down in San Diego

Bears are now 6-3 on the year after a trip down in San Diego when they defeated a ranked Kentucky team by a 5-1 score, only to be edged 2-0 and 2-1 to Texas Tech and San Diego State respectively. Bears did also picked up wins over South Dakota (8-1 win) and San Diego (6-3 win) to go 3-2 on the weekend.

With a ranking of 25th in the country, the Bears will be down in Palm Springs this weekend to take on NC State, Colorado State, LIU Brooklyn, and Long Beach State.

GO BEARS!

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